"When you work in banking, HR is not your friend"

26 September 2025

2 minute read

I have spent over two decades working for investment banks and hedge funds and if there is one thing I have learned, it is this: never, ever, trust human resources (HR).

Click here to register your interest in entering the bubble by eFinancialCareers, our new anonymous community. ✍️

I don't know how things work in other industries, but if you work for a bank or hedge fund and you have a problem, do not go to HR.

In this industry, HR is not your friend. HR is a proxy for senior management. They will not act in your interest but in the interest of the firm.

Many of the most heinous things I've heard about during my career have involved HR. They can be absolutely ruthless when they think it necessary, and people are far too trusting. I have seen people go to HR and things go very badly for them as a result.

The best way to think of HR is a risk management function for human beings. They are there to minimize an organisation's exposure to humans. People misunderstand this and think that HR are a neutral ear that they can go to if they have a problem, but this is absolutely not the case. If you go to them with an issue, never presume that they will not share it with your manager.

This does not mean that HR have no role to play in banks and funds. There is one circumstance where they are valuable and that is when you are slightly ill. You must only be slightly ill, however. If you are too ill, they will start totting up the costs and will think about letting you go.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Signal: sarahbutcher.22 Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.

AUTHORDennis Mcdonald

Insider Comment

TS
TS100
2 October 2025
HR are a crisis management function for senior management. Never go to them. Think about it - there is a massive conflict of interest here. The senior management is their employer. Who would they protect ? The analyst who gets shouted upon or the MD who hires HR and makes them relevant once in a while. For the best part HR is a payroll processing and graduate event management function.
1 reply
Hu
Human Respect
30 September 2025
All true and when there is an economic downturn, they may just work against you full-time as your CEO gets her bonus based on target redundancies decided with bank shareholders. Emails, mobile info, videocalls all good material they can access to get rid of you.
Reply
Al
AliasBFG
29 September 2025
HR are very rarely anything to do with the bank you're working for and more likely an outsourced third party paid an exorbitant fee to fulfill this function. They do not know you and your bank is likely one of several they work with on any given day as they operate like any call centre. On the rare occasion they are actually a function of the company they will likely sit behind security and spend as little time face to face with their fellow colleagues as possible.
Reply
Ha
Happy-go-lucky
29 September 2025
It's a double edged sword. Go to them with your problem, and they will find ways to get rid of you or further implicate you in trouble. However, if you don't go, they will use this as ammunition to argue your problem is not valid. I've seen actual court cases where bullying and sexual harassment has been belittled due to the employee 'not going to HR or seeking help'. Then HR wonders why nobody goes to them, or trusts them... You can't win.
Reply
HR
HRHRHR
27 September 2025
HR are very often enablers of bullying and sexual harassment. They act as prostitutes for the management and are effectively professional liars. This is widely known and the courts ought to take this into account when claims are made.
2 replies